Iris Murdoch (Author) Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin in 1919. She read Classics at Somerville College, Oxford, and after working in the Treasury and abroad, was awarded a research studentship in Philosophy at Newnham College, Cambridge. In 1948 she returned to Oxford as fellow and tutor at St Anne's College and later taught at the Royal College of Art. Until her death in 1999, she lived in Oxford with her husband, the academic and critic, John Bayley. She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1987 and in the 1997 PEN Awards received the Gold Pen for Distinguished Service to Literature. Miranda Seymour (Introducer) Miranda Seymour is the author of the innovative and widely admired Ring of Conspirators, a study of Henry James and his circle, and of the acclaimed biography Ottoline Morrell: Life on the Grand Scale, twelve times selected as book of the year for 1992. She also writes novels and children's books. She lives in London.